Forage and grain crops are common components of livestock feed. While these components may be utilized independently, it is frequently preferable to provide a mixture of feed stuff such as hay with grain or other fluent materials. Several mixers have been developed for this purpose. A very successful mixer for fluent and non-fluent material is disclosed in previously issued patents of which I am a co-inventor or sole inventor, U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,990, issued Mar. 26, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,672, issued Jul. 1, 1986 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,626, issued Jul. 12, 1988. The mixers of these patents include a rotor and a main mixing chamber next to vertically stacked augers in an auxiliary side chamber. The material is moved from one end of the auxiliary chamber to the other in opposite directions and is continuously cycled from the main chamber into the auxiliary chamber. The mixing action is more extensively described in these patents.
The mixer of these patents will mix fluent material with non-fluent material such as hay. Hay is more difficult to mix with fluent material as it is necessary that the hay be left in the mixer for extended periods of time until it has been sufficiently chopped or shredded. Also, it is often desirable to put hay bales of varying sizes into the mixer for mixing with the fluent materials. I invented an improved mixer that would allow for a faster more efficient way of chopping or processing baled hay of different sizes with the fluent materials. This improved mixer is the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,310, issued Sep. 1, 1992.
While the prior art mixers supply an efficient means for mixing average amounts of fluent with non-fluent material, there remains a need to maintain an efficient mixing and cutting process that does not damage fragile ingredients, such as flaked or high moisture corn. This is of critical importance to the operators of large livestock operations (large operators).
Larger conventional auger mixers tend to damage certain fragile feed ingredients even more than small to medium size auger mixers. This tendency to damage fragile feed ingredients is due at least in part to the additional time required for mixing and unloading. While the prior art mixers described above greatly reduced or eliminated the amount of damage to fragile ingredients such as flaked or high moisture corn, the capacity of these mixers is limited. If the recommended capacity of these mixers is surpassed, the quality of mixing and the speed of mixing is reduced. In addition, the material to be mixed must remain in the mixer for longer periods of time thus increasing the damage potential to fragile ingredients. What is needed is a feed mixer that maintains high quality and efficiency of mixing while greatly reducing or eliminating damage to fragile feed ingredients such as flaked or high moisture corn. In addition, what is needed is a means for allowing larger quantities of hay at a time to be loaded into this mixer and a means to cut and/or shred this hay so that a large amount of feed can be mixed quickly without the need to keep the hay and feed mix in the mixer for long periods of time in an effort to fully homogenize the hay.
Therefore a primary object of the present invention is the provision of an improved feed mixer.
A further object is the provision of a feed mixer which allows larger quantities of hay to be loaded into the mixer and cut or shred.
A further object of the present invention is to increase the speed of introduction of hay into the mixer while at the same time permitting full homogenization of the hay into the other feed ingredients.
A further object of the present invention is to increase the quality and efficiency of the mixer while at the same time reducing damage to fragile feed ingredients such as flaked or high moisture corn.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of an improved mixer which is economical to manufacture, durable in use, and efficient in operation.